France: Farmers expected to cut back on spring barley acreage this year
Farmers in France, the European Union's biggest crop producer, are expected to sow more soft wheat and rapeseed for this year's harvest and cut back on sugar beet and spring barley, partly in response to severe drought last year, the farm ministry said on April 12.
For soft wheat, France's most-grown cereal, the ministry pegged the 2022 area, including a very small amount of spring crop, at 4.77 million hectares, up 1.7% versus 2022 and stable compared with the average of the past five years.
Winter soft wheat sowings were revised down slightly to 4.75 million hectares from a previous estimate of 4.76 million hectares in February.
For rapeseed, France's main oilseed crop, the total area was estimated at 1.34 million hectares, up 9.3% from last year and 11.1% above the five-year average.
Like soft wheat, rapeseed is almost exclusively a winter crop in France.
"In view of the drought impact in 2022 and price levels, sowing choices favoured winter crops like soft wheat, barley and rapeseed," the ministry said in a crop report on Wednesday.
France was among European countries hit by drought and heatwaves last summer that hurt spring-sown crops like maize and sugar beet.
Among first estimates for spring crops, the ministry said sugar beet plantings were expected to fall 4.9% from last year to 382,000 hectares.
That was 11.5% under the five-year average and would be the first time the sugar beet area would fall below 400,000 hectares since the abolition of EU sugar production quotas in 2017, it added.
Sugar beet growers have anticipated a steeper decline in planting due to a ban on a pesticide treatment for seeds.
For spring barley, the crop area was estimated at 488,000 hectares, down 14.2% versus 2022 and 19.2% below the five-year mean.
That led the ministry to project the total barley area down 2.1% versus last year at 1.82 million hectares, with the drop in spring barley offsetting a 3.2% rise for winter barley to 1.33 million hectares.
The ministry is due to give a first estimate of maize planting next month.
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